Enjoy a Drink!

I’ve had the pleasure of working with RumChata for the past few years and have had the opportunity to experiment at great lengths with their versatile cinnamon cream liqueur. So far, I’ve run into very few limitations for RumChata in cocktails. Initially, I began with riffs on the White Russian, or the other standard cream liqueur drinks, like a splash in coffee or cocoa.

What has surprised me, though, is how RumChata works with other liquors, like gin, applejack or whiskey. In fact, I’ll go as far to say that cocktails with RumChata and whiskey are some of my favorites. Here’s a new cocktail I created called the Hunny Peach:

In the past few months, you may have noticed a new Irish whiskey on the shelves: The Sexton Single Malt. Introduced in early 2019 to the North American market, The Sexton comes in a stunning near-black hexagonal bottle with a dapper skeleton insignia. More attractive than that may be The Sexton’s price, though, at only $25 per bottle.

Made from 100% malted Irish barley and distilled in copper pots, The Sexton is aged 4 years in sherry casks. Often, Irish whiskey has a sweeter profile than the neighboring whisky from Scotland, but in this particular case The Sexton offers a surprising and slightly unfamiliar profile: spices and anise. So while there is a familiar Irish-ness in the initial sip of The Sexton, the back of the palate feels the warmth from the anise, while the tip of your tongue tingles from other spices as well.

Any time an “imported” whiskey is available at a decent age (remember this is 4 years old), and with a good price point, it’s a no-brainer to pick up a bottle to try. The Sexton can be used in cocktails where Rye is normally called for, which should add an interesting twist and character. At a relatively tame 40% ABV, I prefer sipping The Sexton neat or in an Old Fashioned, and often enjoy it with a cigar.

Did you know that combining a shaken cocktail with club soda can give you a “foamy” consistency to a tall drink? That’s exactly what I had in mind as I made this cocktail with RumChata and as warmer weather is on the horizon.

This tall cocktail, in fact, is really a template for a delicious creamy drink, and nearly every part can be interchanged with other ingredients to create a unique RumChata soda that fits your tastes. Don’t like chocolate syrup? Replace with caramel! There are lots of great options here.

Every time Fall and Winter arrive, my RumChata bottles go quick. From adding a shot to coffee or hot cocoa to making some great rum or whiskey based cocktails with it, the cinnamon and horchata flavors make it easy to create a great cold-weather drink.

With that in mind, I decided to make a drink that’s got an easy mixing ratio (2:1:1) and is perfect for sipping by the fire! Here’s the Spiced Chata cocktail:

Spiced Chata (by Greg Mays)

in a shaker, combine:

2 oz amber rum

1 oz RumChata

1 oz spiced liqueur (I used Jägermeister Spice)

shake with ice and strain into an old fashioned glass with ice cubes

garnish with an apple slice

Alternatively, you can serve “up” in a chilled cocktail glass with no ice. Enjoy this Fall cocktail from our sponsor RumChata!

Walk the Line is a series we do at Simple Cocktails where we take all the various bottlings from one brand, then differentiate them all. Today we explore a small brand with a huge name in the whiskey space. Actually I need to correct that to whisky as the Samuels family has tapped their Scottish heritage to name Maker’s without the traditional American “e” on the bottle, setting them part even more in the bourbon space.

Starting production in 1954, Maker’s is a relatively “new” brand of bourbon. It’s currently owned by Beam-Suntory and packaged in distinctive, trademarked),dripping-red-wax bottles. Here’s the line that’s available from Marker’s now:

Maker’s Mark ($30). The core brand of the line, Maker’s contains a higher amount of wheat in its ingredients, which makes for a sweeter, smooth sipping whiskey. It’s sold at 45% ABV.

Maker’s Mark Cask Strength ($50). Using a bottle with a similar shape as the core whisky, Cask Strength is exactly what it sounds like: Maker’s at the strength it comes out of the barrel. Introduced in 2014, it’s similarly sweet, though a tad spicier than the core Maker’s. This one packs a punch at 56.6% ABV.

Maker’s 46 ($30). 46 starts as Maker’s, but is put through a special aging process in which additional charred wood staves are inserted into its casks as it ages. This produces a bourbon that’s spicer than Maker’s. It’s different enough that Fred Minnick, in his book “Bourbon Curious,” separates it from the “caramel-forward” Maker’s Mark and Cask Strength and moves Maker’s 46 into his “cinnamon-forward” bourbon category. Maker’s 46 was introduced in 2010.

I love challenging myself to come up with creative new ways to mix RumChata, and the cinnamon-and-cream deliciousness always mixes very well with other items in the bar.

Because Fall is coming soon, I’ve begun thinking about seasonal flavors I can mix with RumChata, and decided on a spiced concoction that turned out really beautiful and really tasty. I’ve named it the Angel Wings because of the deceptively pink-ness of the drink, which is surprisingly strong. Here’s how to make it:

Angel Wings (by Greg Mays)

in a cocktail shaker, combine:

1 oz RumChata

2 oz reposado tequila

1/2 oz herbal liqueur (like Jägermeister)

1/4 oz Grenadine

shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass

garnish with cherries

The spice and the tequila balance very well with the spices in RumChata and make for a bright, flavorful and tasty cocktail.

RumChata’s a great liquor to splash in your coffee or hot chocolate, but don’t forget that it can also be enjoyed as part of an iced-coffee cocktail during the summer. I applied a little creativity on this recipe and came up with a delicious and refreshing drink. It’s really simple to make and RumChata’s cream-and-cinnamon flavor is at the forefront. Try this one out:

I feel like with every RumChata cocktail I make here at Simple Cocktails, it becomes a challenge to be more creative and more interesting with the next recipe. Now that we’re on the brink of Spring, my focus has drifted to my mint plants, which are just starting to show signs of life.

So how to incorporate mint into a cinnamon-rum-and-cream liqueur like RumChata? It turns out RumChata was actually the perfect binding ingredient to the other two I chose to use in this cocktail: apple whiskey and creme de menthe! Here’s how I made it:

Though we’ve spent the year proving otherwise, I don’t think there’s any doubt that RumChata’s real season to shine is the winter. With it’s creamy cinnamon and rum notes, there are a lot of opportunities to make some killer cold-weather cocktails with it.

I’ve been working hard to break RumChata out of it’s shell this year, though. It obviously plays well with coffee, chocolate and rum, but I’ve been working to pair with with spirits you wouldn’t necessarily think of using (like gin in the Red Summer).

So for our final RumChata foray, I’ve gone all warm and wintry with Calvados (a Spanish apple brandy) and a spiced liqueur. I call it the Apple Snap: